Fun!

Hey MHMS Kids! It’s MHTV Application Time! Pick one up in the Cafeteria at lunch (see above) return it to Media (there will be a box on a chair) OR…..be super cool & fill out the GSuite Doc Application below! (HINT: Use your password from last year!) We’d love to have you join us — esp. 6th graders!

Fall at Savage is packed full of free practice tests for SAT, ACT and PSAT, as well as numerous other awesome classes and events such as as teen movies with popcorn, tie dye, college and career readiness workshops, sparkle glitter jars, financial literacy, intro to sign language, a writing workshop with published teen author Zack Smedley, canvas and cookies painting party, suicide prevention, rainbow book meet up, theater preview of HHS fall play, anime club and a new interactive 4H series featuring STEM jobs — please share with your students and teachers ❤️

Where does the time fly? I can’t believe it’s that time of year again! Time to share our Summer Reading List with you! It’s my 27th year in HCPSS and 22nd year here at Murray Hill Middle School! W00t! A lot of things have changed but some thing stay the same. Like still LOVING to read. Every day. Especially, in the Summer time! There’s nothing better to sit outside, on the beach, under an umbrella, or in a screened in porch and just read. For hours and hours! Where do you like to read? Any verified official Murray Hill kid who answers that in the comments will get a surprise next year! Sorry, Svetlana in Vladivostok, you are not eligible to win, but I still appreciate you reading this blog!

…..also, Pssst! Grownups! The ADULT Summer Reading List is linked at the bottom.

Thanks to our our A+ partner Librarians at the Howard County Library and two of our local HCPSS Middle School Teacher-Librarians we have created this Super Fun Reading List for all the kiddos in our district! (or the world!)

Murray Hill kids – If you read any of these books this summer, we would LOVE to hear what you thought in the comments! Follow us on Instagram to see pics of kids being AWESOME every day in our library and throughout the school!

Also, if you take a picture of yourself reading this summer or visiting a Library & tag me at @TheDaringLibrarian you’ll get a prize! Also, please tag @HoCoLibrary to maybe get some extra SWAG! 😉 But you have to find me in September and remind me, by saying like “Swag Me” because I’m getting old! LOL

From the Howard County Public Library, Our A+ Partners

Welcome to Summer Reading: A Universe of Stories

Join us for Summer Reading KICKOFF on Saturday, June 1 from 10 am to 2 pm at HCLS Miller Branch!

Activities in the Enchanted Garden include planting a sunflower and being a human sundial (weather permitting)

Indoor activities include crafts for children, and encounters with moon rocks and other rocks from space borrowed from NASA

Food trucks: Kona Ice and Say Cheese!

11 – 11:45 pm performance by The Milkshake Duo

12:30 – 1:30 pm fun with Eric Energy

ENROLL in Summer Reading Beginning June 1, 2019

Children, teens, and adults can participate! Enroll online from home or at any HCLS branch OR pick up a paper booklet at any branch.

After you’ve enrolled online or picked up your Summer Reading booklet, log the books you read and mark off activities as you complete them.

For every book/activity you complete, you receive an entry into a branch and systemwide prize drawing for your age group.

FOR ONLINE PARTICIPANTS: HCLS has a new online summer reading portal called BookPoints! Beginning June 1, 2019 you can register for a free summer reading account and create your BookPoints Username and password. Earn up to 41 entries into end-of-summer prize drawings by participating online!

FOR PAPER ONLY PARTICIPANTS: Between July 1 and August 31, return your completed booklet to any library branch to receive one entry into the end-of-summer prize drawings for each book or activity you complete. Check off a minimum of 20 books and/or activities to officially complete Summer Reading 2019: A Universe of Stories!

Re-posting this! I just want to share a few coloring pages I curated online & made into PDF’s & JPEGS for our kiddos! I love adding new coloring pages to our Makerspace, especially during special months and with themes. There are a LOT of FREE coloring pages out there for a school Makerspace, you just know how to find them, adapt them, & follow the copyright licensing!

Coloring Pages for Women’s History Month

I uploaded the curated coloring sheets as Jpegs on Flickr embedded below and to download as Printable PDF’s on Slideshare.

Enchantress of Numbers! Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine

OK, that’s a kind of a big statement. You may have heard of this, but I found this out right before Christmas and started this blog then…but, you know. Holidays. So….just in case you haven’t heard about this, here it is.

The Space Bar Cursor Trick on the iPhone / iPad in iOS 12 is a great time saver for every iPhone or Apple user.

You can press and hold (long press) the space bar on an iPhone / iPad to control the cursor as mouse pointer. You can easily move over to the exact spot where you want to edit the text.

How did I go years and years without knowing this iPhone keyboard trick? (I’m so tired the overused word of hack) Apparently, it’s not exactly new but little known. If you’ve ever felt the frustration of trying to move the cursor exactly where you want it when correcting (my increasingly less accurate -what’s with that, too?) voice to text results tapping here and tapping there, when texting or writing an email on your iPhone, this little tip will make your day.

I am an Apple Geek. How could they keep this from me?!

I love my Apple products. I’ve been an Apple fanatic since I created an Apple-Talk network of Apple IIe’s & Apple G3’s the first year I started teaching in 1992! Also, my first Ed Tech conference presentation was about integrating my new CD Rom & this thing called the Internet to a group research product centered around Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego! Sheesh.

(March 1996) Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego: A Fun Multimedia
Research Unit for Grades 4-8. Featuring the Apple IIgs, GeoSafari, USA
Atlas CD-ROM & the Internet.

MICCA – Maryland Instructional Computer Coordinators Association,

Baltimore, MD

Anyway, just had to share that with you friends. Hope it will help you out as much as it has for me! Did you already know about it? Do you have another great iOS tech tip to share? Hit me up in the comments, follow me on Twitter, & reach out! Thank you!

Do you ever get stuck clicking around Amazon buying random stuff you may not really need but suddenly desire? Do you have a mountain of Amazon boxes in your kitchen waiting for each recycle day? Yeah, me neither! [cough] But sometimes I stumble across something that sparks my creativity and I’m like – SO COOL!….Now what can I do with it?

This was the case with a set of 100 antique style keys I found that came with raffia cords & brown card stock tags that I thought would be a cool component of a reading promotion campaign!

Reading is the Key to a Rich & Interesting Life!

If you’re an English or Reading Teacher or a School Librarian please head on over to my professional blog,The Daring Librarian, for buying information, more how-to’s, and FREE Downloadables!

Generating a list of the top 100 readers in my school and letting each kid pick out their preferred special key, I’m presenting it to them one by one including the key on a soft twine for wearing around the neck and a specially stamped commemorative card!

I’m also taking pictures and posting them on Instagram & Twitter of each of our Key Readers!

Miss Caroline leads the pack having readover 100books this year! And still going through them about a book every other day!

Here’s my friend Mr. Ben who is one of my “frequent fliers” and avid readers. Ben is in the Top 5 having read over 70 books!

I’m so proud of our ravenous readers here at Murray Hill Middle School! This is what brings us the most joy – having kids come in every day (sometimes twice a day!) gobbling up new books and enjoying them!

I just want to share a few coloring pages I curated online & made into PDF’s & JPEGS for our kiddos! I love adding new coloring pages to our Makerspace, especially during special months and with themes. There are a LOT of FREE coloring pages out there for a school Makerspace, you just know how to find them, adapt them, & follow the copyright licensing!

I uploaded the curated coloring sheets as Jpegs on Flickr embedded below and to download as Printable PDF’s on Slideshare.

Enchantress of Numbers! Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine

We’ve discovered that the mix of the digital divide, possible turbulent home lives, and general teenage forgetfulness can result in a loss of power. So, for vaious reasons it seems that some of my students who DO have devices (yes, there are still a lot who do NOT) show up to school with a low or no charge. Yes, they sometimes admit that they fall asleep with their phone next to them and not plugged in. Shocker.

A device that they LOVE to use for social connections and fun in the hallways and during free time. Oh yeah, and sometimes in class for learning, too! Without that device they feel a serious gap in their daily lives.

We Fill That Gap!

We want the kids to feel like the Library Media Center – Learning Commons and Makerspace Station – is a safe place to land and the place to go when they need things. Like finishing and priting out homework, relaxing and making something at our Makerspace Station, practicing mindfulness with our Coloring Zen area, or borrowing a charger to power up their devices. This is our third try with this concept, the first two were failures – if you interested you can read about this journey going back four years on my professional blog. So far, this is going GREAT!

Backstory: A few years ago, I was inspiredby the charging lockers I saw during a visit to theHillwood High School Library in Nashvillewith the ISTE Board of Directors and I wanted to support our BYOD pilot program and our kiddos by giving them a place to recharge their devices in school.

And of course that place was going to be our school Library Media Center — shameless how we will do just about ANYthing to get kiddos to visit our Library!

Because I think we’ve now hit on a really easy, relatively low cost, & popular way to give my kids the power they crave and need.

Approximate cost for 8 chargers & 10 cords = $130 bucks

Piece of mind not worrying that kiddos will have their devices stolen or locked out on your watch?

Priceless!

Procedure:

• Kids (and staff) can request a charging device, first come, first serve anytime before 2pm. I also bought 2 flat chargers for staff to borrow. Kids come first. Always.

• We keep the chargers tucked away on a shelf behind the Circulation Desk.

• Kids must first show that their phone has less than 30% charge to get one. (We found at first some kids just wanted it for the cool factor – which was cool, but not cool for the kids who really NEEDED them!)

• We don’t lend them out for the charging of fancy headphones – these are for devices that could possibly be used in the classroom.

• Kids can borrow the charger alone or with a multi-device cord. They must initial to agree to pay for the loss or damage of the device & cord (Yeah, we know this isn’t really enforceable)

•We ask that kids agree not to let the device out of their sight – if they’re asked to share it – we trust them to keep track of it.

•We also ask that kids bring back the device at the end of the day. Do they always remember? Nope! That’s why we collect their last period class teacher (I, or my amazing Media assistant Kathi Bell, calls classrooms at the end of the day to get them back – or we track them down the first period of the next day.

Yeah, We’re Popular!

Some days we’re cleaned out of chargers within the first 5 minutes of school. I’m making a sign for our front door that says “Yes, We Have Awesome Chargers to Borrow!” or “Sorry, All Chargers Have Been Borrowed” withBitmoji cartoons.

• This is a complimentary service. We also reserve the right to not lend out a charger on an early dismissal day, after 1:30pm, or to a kiddo who has proven to be unreliable with the charger in the past. But that hasn’t happened yet. Frankly, I doubt it ever will. Don’t tell my students, for all my fierceness [snaps Z formation] I’m kind of a soft touch. But I gotta keep that leverage because we want to keep these chargers nice for everyone. So far though, the kids have been super fantastic and very enthusiastic about this new FREE perk we’re providing to them!

GOAL #1 MHMS provides a safe and nurturing school environment that respects our diversity and commonality.

Why do we do this?

You never know what kinds of things kids are struggling with at home. What if a kid doesn’t have a computer at home and just a mobile device and needs to do homework? This is important! We can help fill the gaps that the world & circumstance gives to these kiddos.

My kids tell me you can get these chargers at Five Below. I haven’t tried them yet. If we lose a lot over the year, I might give them a whirl. The multi device cords are CHEAP! Meaning, inexpensive to pick up (via Amazon) but they can sometimes stop working and can break. So far, so good, though and this has been a LOT less of a headache than those fancy expensive charging lockers.

This great idea was inspired by the amazing Teacher Librarian at Wilde Lake Middle School – Sarah Russo!

I should have started with that! [smacks forehead] but I wanted to give how we run this first.

Are you a Teacher Librarian, or educator and want to hear what problems we encountered with our previous attempts at charging stations and charging lockers?

Because, NO ONE wants to be responsible for a kids only device but it’s AWESOME to be responsible to give POWER to a kid and their beloved device!

Your turn!

What am I missing here? Any other suggestions? Successes? Do you like that we help out the kiddos? What other things could we add to our School Library to make it a more appealing place (Other than a Keurig -that would be boss!) Please hit me up in the comments and share your thoughts! Thank you for reading!

Buying information. If you want to get one of these for yourself or for your kiddo, check Amazon! So far, they’ve been great & I did have 2 die on my (after being used by kids…a LOT) but the company is sending me 2 replacements! I couldn’t ask for better customer service than that!

When I first heard this, I thought it was too good to be true! I thanked her vaguely on Twitter then I thought – could I possibly share it with everyone? So, I called her to double check that I could share it with you, the world, and his wife – and she said YES!

Students (and your kids!) can choose FREE eBooks from a library of over 3,200 to download & read over the break****

From Mythology, Scary Stories, Fiction, to Graphic Novels – there’s more than enough interesting titles to choose. You can even access interactive books to read to your little siblings or to your pets! (They always deserve it!)

Middle school kiddos can filter by grade level.

Below there’s even a letter to for parents (in English & Spanish) or students AND Bonus: a printable bookmark with login & password.

*****(Download FAST offer ends Jan 15th)

Visit our Library Media Center to load up on books for the Winter Break! Take home as many as you want! (as long as you don’t have any overdue books, cause – you know – I ain’t THAT crazy!) We have many readers in our school (you know who you are!) who can read a book a day — ok, sometimes even more! We want to make sure you’ve got great stuff to enjoy!

Why not Tweet a Thank you to Katie & Capstone for this generous gift to all our reading families!? That would be Awesome! Please say you heard it from @GwynethJones the Daring Librarian! Maybe if we show our gratitude enough, we’ll get even more FREE trials! W00t! Who doesn’t like FREE?

Welcome Back Kiddos, Parents, & Families!

Happy 20th Anniversary Murray Hill!

That means, the 8th grade kiddos I taught when we opened Murray Hill back in 1997 would now be in their 30’s! Whaaaat? That’s Crazy! But seriously, I am SO honored to have been a part of this community since the beginning. I never thought I was one of those teachers who would stay in the same school for like, forever!

But here I am, still happy, loving our quirky middle school kiddos and the vibrant and rich diversity of our neighborhood! I also like that I live near our community and only have to drive 7 minutes to get here!

This year is going to be both fantastic and challenging! Ms. Bell, our amazing Media Assistant, is still not with us full time. But, we’re grateful for any time we’re given to support our awesome Library and Literacy program here at MHMS. A big thanks to our wonderful new Principal Mr. Wilson for valuing our program and letting Ms. Bell work with our kiddos in the mornings whenever she can in between her other duties as a paraeducator.

We’re both a “cup half full” kinda people! And our mantra for this and every year is borrowed from the esteemed fashion educator & Project Runway mentor, Tim Gunn – WE like to “Make it work!”

Speaking of making and working I’m excited to set up again our ever evolving Makerspace Station at MHMS in our Daring School Library Media Center for the third year! We’re going to be adding more stations, robotics, technology and opportunities to create, make, craft, design, code, and construct in our school!